The Team's Board Report - Mainfreight

34
Scanners
We have had a terrible time with our driver
scanners in New Zealand over recent months
mainly due to problems that Telecom had
with the volume of data in their CDMA data
network. Additionally our cradle supplier has
taken forever to replace the faulty parts in the
cradle that charges the scanner. Telecom’s
system is now stable and drivers should have
the confidence in the system to push their
scanning percentages back up to 100%. We
have decided to reward drivers who achieve our
scanning criteria for the full month. More details
will be found in a letter that will be sent direct to
the drivers with scanners.
Trade Me
Trade Me users can now get an online quote
for our freight services through the Postage
Centre on the Trade Me website. The quote
is immediate once you have entered the key
details of the proposed consignment. You
can then convert the quote into a pickup and
Mainfreight will arrange to pickup the goods
from the Trade Me seller’s door for delivery
anywhere in New Zealand. This New Zealand
service can also be accessed direct on
www.mainfreight.co.nz.
IT Structure
We have strengthened our New Zealand IT team
by separating the responsibilities into multiple
areas. David Hall has taken responsibility for
infrastructure projects and John Eshuis for
software projects. This leaves Anthony Barrett
to concentrate on IT operations in Australia
and New Zealand. Kevin Drinkwater continues
to oversee IT for the Mainfreight group.
These changes, along with the appointment
of Michael Hood in Australia, mean that we
have broadened our knowledge base and
strengthened our ability to undertake the deluge
of projects we have in the pipeline.
CaroTrans
CaroTrans continues with its development
of business efficiency modules which have
included;
- the creation and sending of steamship line
bills of lading electronically from within
CaroTrack
- the automatic calculation of agents credits
and warehouse charges on imports
- the ownership of import revenues and
expenses by inland branches where the
freight is destined to their area and
- significant improvements to the import
EDOCS process.
CaroTrans are working on two projects currently
that will allow import customers to view
status information from the shipping lines and
customs. Export customers will be able to get
online quotes for their domestic trucking from
the CaroTrans website.
CaroTrans has made a major investment in their
infrastructure purchasing over US$100,000 of
new computer equipment to run their major
systems. Like Mainfreight they will be installing
the latest blade server and SAN equipment
incorporating duplicate hardware in case of
hardware failure.
Conclusion
Our IT team have never been as busy as
they have been over the past six months.
They continue to develop a large amount of
functionality for our systems while working
intensely on several strategic infrastructure
projects. These projects will set the platform to
allow for the Mainfreight’s growth over the next
three years. You should see the benefits over
the next six months.